The good points:
All the staff - front desk, housekeeping, and restaurant - were super friendly, helpful and responsive.
The room had a balcony overlooking the harbor, which was nice (but a bit too cold this time of year to spend much time out there).
Parking was part of the reservation which is a great thing here and the facility is walking distance to just about everything in downtown Newport.
Now the areas for improvement:
Toliet was not very efficient at its job - wasted a lot of water on flushes. The shower controls took a bit of trial and error to get to a reasonable temperature - these things shouldn't require that much work.
The room was large and comfortable, but the temp was hard to stabilize.
Door to the balcony rattled with the wind and you could feel the draft - definitely needed weatherstripping/caulking.
For a 4 story hotel, the elevators were very slow and the door operation was quirky.
This place could sorely use an update - not just another coat of paint.